Broken Souls: Madness
by RegalPixieDust
Summary: Living in Storybrooke is much of a distant memory, but when Robin and Regina decide to take the weekend away in her grandfather's house, a horrible truth begins to unveil itself. For SpookyOQ!


Spooky is here! If you haven't read Broken Souls, you may be a little confused - but it's just a click away if you want to catch up. I just had to bring these two back to life for another ghost story! The word today is "Mask" Enjoy, and please do comment if you can, any theories so far?

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"Are you surprised?" Robin asks, chuckling lightly at her face of sheer shock as he offers a hand to help her from the passenger seat.

Robin had been planning this surprise getaway for months and not once did he give in to her endless attempts at a hint; he even had the boys wrapped around his secretive little finger and they wouldn't budge an inch, not even with delicious chocolate chip pancakes thrown into the mix as a way to sweeten them up a bit. They didn't crack.

A surprise trip to her childhood home wasn't even in the realm of things she thought he would plan. But alas, here they are, parked by the sidewalk of the home her grandfather built and spent years worshipping.

"Of course I'm surprised," she tells him honestly, unable to rip her eyes from the gorgeous pathway up to the grand white mansion. It's exactly as she remembers it, not that Storybrooke is an easy place to forget. She remembers walking around town with her father on sunny summer afternoons and retreating to his study in the evenings where he'd get lost in a book and she would watch his mind work marvellously.

They moved when she was seven, but she could swear the house hadn't seen another day since then, even down to the large apple tree in the front yard. "Does my father know?"

"No," Robin explains, "I overheard you both discussing it a couple of months ago, about how you always wished you could come back, and with the power of the internet, I was able to see that it was unoccupied. I made a few phone calls and…" he reaches inside his trouser pocket to reveal a set of jingling keys, "We have it for the weekend."

Truth be told, Robin must not have heard much of the conversation or he would have known that her father was adamant that she never return here, that the town is ghost ridden and not somewhere she would ever be at peace. But ever since Zelena, Regina has been much more receptive to her gift, helping any wandering soul she can and still manages to balance a full time job, being a mom, and her relationship, so how bad can a few ghosts in a small town really be?

She grins madly, stretching up onto her tiptoes, swinging her arms around his neck and kissing him fervently, mumbling her thanks between kisses.

He takes her hand as they walk up the path, "When were you last here?"

"Not since I was a child," she says, bobbing excitedly on the balls of her feet as he unlocks the front door. "One day Mom just decided we were moving, they packed us up overnight and we moved to the city. I haven't been back since."

Robin pushes the door open wide and makes his way in, immediately taken by the home and the high walls and sturdy, detailed woodwork. "Wow," he murmurs in awe.

She steps inside to follow him and all the excitement that had been bubbling in her stomach freezes, her smile fades, and she is engulfed by an icy cold blanket. Nipping shivers crawl from the base of her spine, up and up until her entire body feels frigid, like she could shatter into a million pieces if touched. She's usually used to the cold that comes with a spirit, but this is something else entirely, she so frozen that her heart is struggling to beat blood around her shrinking veins.

There's a tall, thin figure at the top of the winding staircase, just standing there, towering high and staring down at her. She can't take her eyes from it as it descends, one agonisingly slow step at a time, all while she is quite literally frozen in fear.

It creeps towards her, the sound of bones cracking with every movement it makes, getting closer and closer until she is toe to toe with the face of an unknown man; Robin's unaware while he explores the vast study on the right, and she tries to call out to him, desperate for Robin's warmth to pull her from whatever has her locked in its gaze.

The face is terrifying. Its features are blank, blurry almost, as if this darkened spirit is wearing a mask to disguise themselves. The ghost can't speak, instead, it wails desperately and loudly. Her ears are ringing painfully but she can't lift her arms to cover them. The screaming doesn't let up, and it's full of enough pain to suck the air from her lungs until she's struggling to breathe. The light around her begins to fade as she becomes faint, using her entire strength to pull away from the piercing sound of anguish.

It's not until she makes out the harsh, " _get out_!" from the spirit's screams that Robin wraps his arms around her suddenly, pressing her face against his warm chest, relieving her from the trance she was trapped in. She gasps in frantically for breath, clawing onto the cotton of Robin's shirt as her knees weaken and she struggles to keep herself upright.

"You're okay," he whispers over and over, reassuring her with his tight embrace. "Shit, you're freezing." He rubs his palms over her back, warming her up as much as he can with the friction against her shirt.

"Something really horrible happened here," she breathes against his front with deep, rapid breaths. "Really, really bad."


End file.
